St. Simons Island, Ga. – Western Carolina men's golf put two inside the individual top 10 after 18 holes on Thursday to move atop the team leaderboard, tied with Belmont entering Friday's second round with matching scores of 7-under par at The Peoples Championship at Sea Palms Resort. Five teams are within three strokes of the lead, and 13 golfers are within two strokes of medalist honors at the par-71, 6,664-yard course in coastal Georgia.
 
Junior Jace Butcher and redshirt sophomore Tyler Jones posted matching scores of 3-under par 68 to lead the Catamount scoring five, with the duo mired in a six-way tie for eighth entering after the first round.
 
Play resumes Friday with set tee times off both the first and 10th tee with a morning and an afternoon wave. The first golfers hit the course at 8:30 a.m., with the second wave slated for 12:35 p.m. Live scoring is available online through Leaderboard King (leaderboardking.com).
 
Butcher countered four bogeys with a tournament-high tying seven birdies, including six on the back nine on Thursday, for his fourth seasonal round in the 60s. He played the front nine at 2-over par before rallying on the back, shooting 5-under par on his way back to the clubhouse. Jones had a quieter opening 18 holes, carding five birdies over his first 13 holes before bogeys on two of his final three holes of the day for the 3-under par 68.
 
Jones is tied for fourth in par-3 scoring at 1-under par (2.80) on the shortest layouts, while Butcher is tied for second in par-4 scoring at 2-under (3.78).
 
Senior Ivan Ninkovic fired a 1-under par 70, tied for 20th in the individual standings. The Pula, Croatia, product was 1-under on the front nine, birdying his first hole before shooting even-par over the remaining eight. On the back nine, Ninkovic countered three bogeys with a trio of birdies for the 70.
 
Rounding out WCU's scoring five are Connor Williams in a tie for 35th at even-par 71, and junior Andrew Korytoski in a tie for 92nd with a 5-over par 76. Williams had countered four bogeys with four birdies, shooting 2-under on the front and 2- over par on the back. Korytoski posted his lone birdie on the back nine, shooting 1-under par after a 6-over on the front nine.
 
Western Carolina's five individual competitors teamed for a Catamount 'B' team (299), sitting in 20th collectively. Redshirt senior Josh Lendach led the group with a 1-over par 72, tied for 46th overall. Lendach had five birdies and was 3-under through 11 holes before charting two bogeys and a costly double down the stretch.
 
Junior Michael Bevins and freshman Charlie Coe are both tied for 71st with matching scores of 3-over par 74. Bevins shot 2-under on the front with a trio of birdies, while Coe had a pair of birdies among his opening nine holes to make the turn at 1-under par.
 
Rounding out the individual team were junior Dalton Payne in a tie for 109th and freshman Hayden Magnussen in a tie for 115th at 82, carding a birdie on the par-5, 484-yard fourth.
 
Western Carolina and Belmont sit atop the team standings after 18 holes with matching scores of 7-under par 277. The two teams combined for a tournament-best 21 pars apiece through 18 holes. Samford is a stroke off the pace in third after shooting 6-under par 278 collectively on Thursday, with Villanova (279) and Winthrop (280) rounding out the top five teams.
 
Gavin Isbell of Samford, Charleston Southern's Theo Takman, and Chris Harpum from Belmont each fired a 5-under par 66 in Thursday's first round to share the individual lead entering Friday's second round. A combined 13 golfers are within two strokes of the podium through 18 holes of competition.
 
WCU's scoring lineup hits the course Friday at 8:30 a.m. on the back nine, with the Catamount 'B' team following in line beginning on the 10th tee at 9:20 a.m.
 
Keep track of everything related to Catamount men's golf and WCU Athletics through its social media outlets on Facebook (fb.com/catamountsports), Instagram (@wcu_catamounts), and Twitter (@catamounts, @CatamountMGolf).
 
T1 – Western Carolina – 277 (-7)
T8 – Tyler Jones (1) – 68 (-3)
T8 – Jace Butcher (3) – 68 (-3)
T20 – Ivan Ninkovic (2) – 70 (-1)
T35 – Connor Williams (5) – 71 (E)
T92 – Andrew Korytoski (4) – 76 (+5)
 
20 – Western Carolina 'B' – 299 ()
T46 – Josh Lendach (2) – 72 (+1)
T71 – Michael Bevins (3) – 74 (+3)
T71 – Charlie Coe (4) – 74 (+3)
T109 – Dalton Payne (1) – 79 (+8)
T115 – Hayden Magnussen (5) – 82 (+11)